Page 5049 - Week 13 - Thursday, 29 November 2018
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In particular, the review team recommended increasing both the number and the percentage of nursing staff who have specialist mental health qualifications in our inpatient facilities. While we have very dedicated and professional staff working in our inpatient units, ensuring that our staff have the best training and specialist qualifications will improve care for our patients and improve the overall environment. I have directed Canberra Health Services to develop a timetable with targets so that we can set a clear and achievable pathway to meeting this recommendation.
The reviewers also made a recommendation about occupational violence to improve safety for both staff and consumers. This is an area that both I and the Canberra Health Services leadership team are committed to improving. I will speak more to the work being done on this issue shortly. The implementation of the recommendations is being actively progressed, with the oversight of the mental health advisory body. The advisory body met three times between July and October and will continue to work with our mental health staff to ensure progress is being made against all 12 recommendations. Four of the recommendations have been completed and closed, and the other eight recommendations will be implemented by December 2019.
I am also pleased to provide the Assembly with an update on a range of other issues pertaining to mental health. Firstly, I would like to highlight the work that the office for mental health and wellbeing has achieved since its establishment in June 2018. Since the launch, the change leaders of the office have commenced a broad range of stakeholder engagement activities, including over 50 individual stakeholder meetings with non-government organisations, mental health services, government and the community.
In addition, office staff have begun identifying and planning the co-design and engagement processes for members of the broader community to participate in. The coordinator-general for the office, Dr Elizabeth Moore, will commence on 3 December. She has expressed her eagerness to get started in this exciting space and to hit the ground running. Her first priority will be the development of a work plan within the first 100 days of her commencement. The office has already developed a detailed service map to help with navigation and coordination across funding streams and consumer interfaces that will help inform this work.
The agency stewardship group for the office has also been established with representatives from across ACT government. This group will be led by the coordinator-general and will be an important element for co-designing the vision and work plan of the office to address key systemic issues and the social determinants of mental health. I am delighted that in Dr Moore, an experienced psychiatrist, we have someone with outstanding clinical credentials and someone who has a deep commitment to addressing the social determinants. I believe that we have made the right appointment, and I look forward to Dr Moore commencing in her role as the coordinator-general for mental health and wellbeing in the ACT.
The ACT government recognises the importance of having a coordinated mental health system in the territory, rather than a fragmented sector. In Australia, the complexity and importance of integration is recognised by the fifth national mental health and suicide prevention plan, which outlines integrated regional planning and
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